Oh, the places The List has taken me. I will not likely return to any of them. But Okemo is reserved a special honor–a mountain you couldn’t pay me to revisit. A mountain I would even gladly pay to avoid. It is like my childhood feeder hill–Ski Bradford–with ten times the vertical and acreage and five high speed quads. That is Okemo. A royal shit show.
Okemo offers a massive and enjoyable visual on the approach from the east. But any pleasant thoughts regarding the view are quickly displaced by the offending traffic of Ludlow–a municipality that appears particularly devoted to being a ski resort town. The only thing I found enjoyable about Ludlow were slices at the aptly named Wicked Good Pizza.
The upper lot was full so I was directed to a muddy lower lot and forced to take a bus to the lodge. This was a new experience. I stood outside of my car alternating my gaze between the mountain and the buses. I considered getting back in my car and going somewhere else. Anywhere else that didn’t force me to ride a bus to get to the base lodge. I decided that I needed to do this and get it over with. I boarded the bus and was greeted by a grizzled Vermonter whom Okemo forgot to tell he was transporting adults and not kids…
“Shut up! Be quiet and listen up! This is the RED bus! You need to know this! This is important! Remember the RED bus and the time you arrived! You’ll be lost if you don’t remember! This is the RED Bus!”
It was a meat factory. I felt processed. I shuffled up to the ticket window, moo’d, and swapped my voucher for a classic sticky wicket ticket, which surprised me given Okemo’s massive resort status. I pushed through the pens, got dressed, and boarded a waste-of-time beginner quad to get to the action (insiders hint: take the F-10 Magic Carpet to the Sachem Quad instead).
The shit show really began at the Northstar Express Quad. Despite three staff members directing traffic, many boarding issues were frequently occurring. I have never seen a high speed quad stop so many times. I was directed to pair up with a threesome that would not give room.
“On your right.”
“On your RIGHT!”
“ON YOUR RIGHT!!!”
I had two choices: Stand behind the offending mom protecting her two kids from a single rider and allow the chair to ram me into her (stop–visualize that for a moment and appreciate it!) or step aside onto the deck. I wisely side stepped the chair and gave my best incredulous huff. “She wouldn’t let you in?” a liftie inquired.
My impressions of Okemo’s trails matched my preconceptions: wide and flat. I brought out the Volkl Six Stars for a rare ripper day and boy did they ever delight! I played dodgems at Mach Schnell on Upper to Lower Chief. I honestly enjoyed that run, I swear! Over on the South Face, I found a complete Shit Show on Rimrock with relatively empty wide ripping down Stump Jumper (not aptly named) and Punch Line.
Double Diamond and Outrage are “glades” in the true sense of the word: open space with copses of trees. It is sad that there are not more trails like these else where in New England. And the few that do exist seem to loose trees without concern of regeneration. Wide enough in places for a groomer, these short runs were excellent though laughably tame considering the double diamond ratings.
Hoping that Jackson Gore might have upped Okemo’s ante on terrain offerings, I made my way across the mountain to Lower Limelight. This was the Shit Show of the afternoon with mounds of soft pushed around snow causing trouble for the newbs. I played mogul slalom around bodies flying every where. It was a cacophony of face plants, double ejects, and gaping so strong it was audible.
Rolling Thunder was an interesting winder with bumps and obstacles. “Starting to get thin” said one struggling skier. Thin my ass! Go rip some groomers if you can’t ski around a single exposed rock! Despite having my unwieldy stiff Six Stars, I opted to give Jackson Gore’s double diamond–Big Bang–a shot. What makes a double diamond at Okemo? A wide blue square pitched seeded bump slope interrupted by random flats. There were three seeded bump trails on the mountain that I noticed. Surely a nice option for the amateur bump skier looking to improve.
Okemo is what it is: a mountain with something for the entire family that specializes in manicured wide open groomers without much pitch. Even never evers could be skiing Okemo’s double diamond offerings within a few lessons, a developing parallel turn will get you down anything at Okemo. The slopeside development is extensive with condos extending more than halfway up the mountain to the South Face Express Chair. All of those chairlifts and express chairs gobble up skiers and riders excepting the main Northstar Chair where I found the only line. But the lack of difficulty differentiation means the bodies are constantly flying across the trails everywhere on the mountain. There is no escape.
Okemo is a massive wannabe feeder hill of resort proportions. Even for “the right family”, I would easily recommend other areas that do the same thing but without the chaos: Bromley and Pico for starters without even getting off the beaten path or too far from Long Island. But who am I to make such recommendations? I benefit tremendously from places like Okemo that gobble up skier and rider visits. It keeps the places I normally frequent sane and tolerable. I have nothing against developing skiers and families. I was one and part of one in my younger days. But I sure am glad a place like Okemo contains and seemingly delights so many of them.
Okemo: I make the sacrifice to ski it and report on it so you don’t have to.
22 thoughts on “Okemo Shit Show”
Thattaboy Steve, taking one for the team!
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But they also put a lot of family ski areas out of business.
heheheh! My coworkers never understand when I tell them how much I hate that place!
@jamesdeluxe: That seems a little harsh. The economics of skiing itself along with the changing culture and product demand put smaller family owned ski areas out of business. Bad snow years, lack of snow making and grooming, tough expenses, Sunday vs. Stratton leading to higher insurance, etc. didn’t help things. Plus the fact that a lot of smaller areas just didn’t have as good of a product (i.e. the terrain) to work with.
While I follow NELSAP and am sad to see smaller unique areas go under, I would hardly blame the failure of smaller areas on the success of bigger resorts. My own habits as a skier testify to this. As do the habits of a vast majority of skiers. Smaller areas work best as feeder areas in large population centers or community run non-profits. It isn’t because big resorts put them out of business. It is because almost no one is going to drive 3+ hours to vacation at a 500 foot feeder hill.
Shit! Nice show Steve. We had way more fun reading it than you did writing it. Think of it this way, only a guy with tons of flexibility can even have a list of crappy hills to visit, knock most of them off, and still have a great season to boot.
I admit I like the shot of the seeded bumps on Big Bang. Ummm …. bumps!
I haven’t been there except a few times “back in the day” when patrolling at Bear Creek and they closed because of rain…then we’d go ski at “O”.
Nice write up. It is what it is, and like you, I’m not likely to ever return.
After bumping into you at Dunkin’s I told my friend where you were going. He said, “Did you tell him it sucks?” Sorry – I really should have warned you. Join us at Magic next time :))
LOL! @AbuBob: No worries, you would not have been able to change my mind. I needed to do it at least once to see what was there. Now I don’t have to wonder if I incorrectly prejudged the place. Though given the recent weather, I bet Okemo probably skied better than Magic that day… which is a pretty rare thing indeed!
Hahaha. That was a good read. My one experience at Okemo (7 or 8 years ago?) was very similar other than the bus part as I was staying in a condo with friends. The majority of the mtn was insanely boring and rather crowded. The big wide trails were begging for big fast GS turns but I could never get up to speed with people in front of me. I ended up lapping the slow Sachem quad that had no line and hitting the seeded bumps on Ledges. I’d never skied seeded bumps before and it felt so easy 🙂 . Bonus the few others yardsaling their way down were easly avoided.
Wow, I think this is now the most commented post on thesnowway.com! 😮
Yep, Okemeo always has and always will suck the big one. I foryunately got that one out of the way many years ago when I was a novice and the mountain was quiet.
More proof that list-makers are generally sadistic masochists.
Did you at least enjoy a Waffle?
NO WAFFLE.
I tried to insert a quote to put my comment (a half joke) above in perspective, but Word Press deleted it. No, I don’t blame Okemo for so many feeder hills going NELSAP.
Your line above is true — as you approach Ludlow, Okemo creates an impressive backdrop, but the reality is less compelling. Back in the early 00s — before I knew better — I skied there one day midweek and two days on a weekend (I had some ski club coupons). Like anywhere else, the difference between midweek and weekend is huge.
Your pain, my gain. Thanks!
One comment on lists: I sort of have a list of places to hit (Okemo was and, after this TR, remains not on it) but when conditions and logistics line up for me to take the 2- to 3-hour drive north, invariably I opt for the best skiing I can find. Sometimes “hitting a new place” fits in that equation (Middlebury on a pow day this year, for instance) but often not. So, for instance, last year I had ski club vouchers for Suicide Six (at only $5 each!) and wound up eating them (fortunately, only $5 each!) because on the day that would have presented the best opportunity, I couldn’t resist going to MRG instead. Such are the tribulations of the flatlander.
I bought a $5 voucher to both Middlebury and Suicide Six through ACE this season. I used the Middlebury ticket but not the Suicide Six ticket. For $5, it was worth rolling the dice. That averages out to paying $10 for a Middlebury ticket, fair enough. I’ll get Suicide Six next year.
Going with the best skiing you can find is also my MO, nothing to do with being a flatlander or not. Interestingly enough, Okemo probably was one of the better options for grooming ripping on the day of this report. It was just the associated nonsense that made the day tough to swallow. As jamesdeluxe suggested, midweek would be a completely different ball game.
Very funny. I totally agree. It amazes me that it is the number 2 in skier visits in the east.
I ski 60 days a year. most of them are mid-week at Okemo. Okemo is what it is, a low pitch, beginner-intermediate hill for people too lazy and stupid to look further. Anyone willing to ski there, more than once on a weekend is dumber than your average NASCAR fan.
That bus driver probably came down from Stowe after they built the overeasy lift. Crankiest guy I’d ever met. If you weren’t fast enough, you’d get run down.
Like any feeder hill, it’s a huge money machine. Bring them in, feed them well, get a few runs in, tip them upside down, shake all the money out. Repeat.
Instead of thinking of broke ski hills, think of all the jobs and bucks it brought to the community. It was pretty much nowhereville until the mid 80s.
I’m sure a lot of folks will read your report and say, “what is his problem?”
Then again, you want to ski. Nuff said.
Thanks for the report.
Stratton coming up soon? Last time I was there you got a flatbed ride from the parking area. Actually not too bad and pretty quick. If you get there early, you won’t have to wait for everyone else to pickup their lost poles.
Stratton is up March 2012 whenever the snow is bad everywhere else. Can’t wait to roast Intrawest. 🙂
Thanks for telling everyone not to ski here.
– a local.